Amelia Boynton Robinson in Paris:
A Fighting Example at Age 96

October 17, 2007

Civil rights heroine and leading LaRouche collaborator Amelia Boynton Robinson told audiences and press conferences in Paris this week, that at age 96, she is still waging the battle for civil and human rights for all people that she began in the 1920s.

Mrs. Robinson's autobiography, Bridge over Jordan, has just appeared in French, published by Duboiris, a publishing house headed by African investigative journalist Charles Onana.

Her first full day in Paris began with an hour-long interview with Radio Nova, where she was asked to discuss the current problems of racism in the U.S.A., including the recent incidents in Jena, Louisiana and the housing crisis, in the context of the historical fight for the civil rights in the 1960's. Her remarks were so moving that another radio broadcaster in the same building, who had been following the interview, asked to be able to ask her a few questions as well.

In the evening, she gave a one-hour interview to the independent station, Radio Enghien, where the host questioned her in detail about her book. The next day, she appeared for ten minutes on Africa N°1 radio station which broadcasts to several million listeners in Paris and over all of French Africa.

Amelia Boynton Robinson in Venissieux, with Eléazar Bafounta and Colette Ilunga of the Café Noir Association.

The following day, Mrs. Robinson traveled to Venissieux, a working class suburb of Lyon, where she lunched with the deputy mayor. In the evening she addressed a conference of 60 people, organized by the city government and African associations in the area.

In all her appearances, she has emphasized that people must deal with their own fear, which, if not recognized and countered, will turn into jealousy and hatred, and shows through her own example that it is possible to love, and how this makes people free. In her interview on African radio, in particular, she appealed to her hearers to overcome their fears and fight for justice.

Mrs. Robinson is almost always questioned about the Jena incidents in Louisiana and asked to confirm the impression that the fight against racism has back-tracked in recent years in the U.S. audiences are always deeply moved, when she tells them that this is indeed the case, but that she, 96 years of age, is still fighting against it.

Just prior to leaving the U.S. for this European trip, she had been to court in Selma to defend a human rights lawyer who was violently yanked out of a courtroom by a policeman, when she argued with the judge that she was not able to defend her client in the five minutes the judge had granted her. In her Radio Nova appearance, Mrs. Robinson promised that this case will go all the way up to the Supreme Court, and that she will be actively involved in supporting.

The publishers of her autobiography in French have organized further events for the week, including a three-day visit in the city of Nantes (Britanny) with public meetings and press interviews. Nantes was once a center for transport of African slaves to the rest of the world. Publisher Charles Onana reported that this would be one of the very high points on this trip.

On Friday, October 19, 2007 she holds a press conference at the prestigious Foreign Affairs Ministry press center, and in the afternoon she will be autographing her book at the African Presence book store.

On Saturday, Mrs. Robinson will address the General Assembly of Solidarité et Progrès, and later the same day, she is invited to meet with the association African Diaspora, members of the International Cheikh Anta Diop society.

Cheikh Anta Diop was an African historian, intellectual, and political leader who researched the African roots of western culture and high civilizations in the 15th century, to polemicize against the racial concept.

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